The invention relates to a fuel injection pump for internal combustion engines. In such spool-controlled injection pumps, exact and also synchronous guidance of the control spools is of importance for the injection quality and hence for the combustion quality in the engine. Higher loads on the torque shaft, such as can occur in the case of abrupt twisting, for example, can cause a slight bending of the torque shaft, which not only causes errors in the synchronisation between the individual control spools but can also cause substantially increased friction at the bearings of the torque shaft. Since the twisting of the shaft takes place by means of a governor whose adjustment forces are sensitive and depend on rotational speed, variable frictional forces have particularly disadvantageous effects on the control quality.
As in almost all injection pumps of this type, the bearing of the torque shaft on the drive side in a known injection pump (U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,437) is also designed as a simple sliding bearing which simultaneously forms a type of oil barrier in the direction of the governor.
Apart from these sealing and frictional problems, there are also problems in the manufacture of such bearings because the casing bores for accepting the bearing bushes must be absolutely coaxial with the torque shaft in order to avoid bearing stresses which either lead to intolerable additional frictional forces or to deflections and lack of axial sealing at the bearing when torque is applied.